CAMELS IN AZ

When we were in Egypt in 1978, someone there asked me if we had camels in America. He seemed surprised that we had no camels in our deserts. I didn't live in the desert then. I lived in California. Now I live in the desert, and found out that at one time there were camels in our deserts. There was an article about it in our newspaper a few days ago.

After I started writing this post, I remembered posting about camels about a year ago. In that post I had a lot of pictures and info about these interesting creatures. Should you be so inclined, you can click HERE to go to that post and find out more about camels.

Now, back to the article in our newspaper. It starts out by saying if it wasn't for the civil war there might be herds of wild camels roaming our deserts. Thirty-three camels were bought from the middle east and shipped to America. They eventually ended up in Texas. Then they imported 44 more camels. When they discovered the camels didn't understand English, they hired two camel drivers from the middle east to teach them how to handle the animals. The camels were used by the army for awhile transporting supplies. The camels impressed them so much that they decided to order 1000 more but that was about the time the civil war broke out. This spelled the end of the Camel Military Corps as soldiers were sent to the east to fight the battle. Eventually some of the camels were sold and some escaped into the wild. The camels thrived for awhile but eventually died out. The last one was shot in Arizona in 1893 by a farmer who found him grazing in his garden. For a full reading of that newspaper article, you can click HERE. I am just posting a recap of the article.

I've posted this picture of me on a camel in Egypt before, but decided to share it again here. It was an interesting experience to say the least. It really scared me when the camel driver made the camel take off in a run toward the pyramids. Seeing all those pictures of Cairo on the news for the past two weeks brought back memories of when we were there. We were there before Mubarak took over. It was over 30 years ago. Wouldn't want to be there right now. We all need to be praying about the future of that country. Nobody knows for sure how it will all end.

CURIOUS CAMELS

I received an interesting email this morning about the Dromedary Camel. I learned some things from it and wanted to share it with you here on my blog.   - Charlotte

Dromedary Camel

and a Creator/Designer

(from Moody Press)

If you ever doubted that God exists, 

meet the Very Technical, Highly Engineered

Dromedary Camel.

When I'm hungry I'll eat almost anything-

a leather bridle, a piece of rope, my master's tent,

or a pair of shoes.

My mouth is so tough a thorny cactus doesn't bother it.

I love to chow down grass and other plants

that grow here on the Arabian desert.

I'm a dromedary camel, the one-hump kind

that lives on hot deserts in the Middle East.

My hump, all eighty pounds of it,

is filled with fat-my body fuel-not water as some people believe.

My Mighty Maker gave it to me because

He knew I wouldn't always be able to find food

as I travel across the hot sands.

When I don't find any chow, my body automatically 

takes fat from the hump, feeds my system,

and keeps me going strong.

This is my emergency food supply.

If I can't find any plants to munch, my body uses up my hump.

When the hump gets smaller, it starts to tip to one side.

But when I get to a nice oasis and  begin to eat again,

my hump soon builds back to normal.

I've been known to drink twenty-seven gallons of water in ten minutes.

My Master Designer made me in such a fantastic way that

in a matter of minutes all the water I've swallowed

travels to the billions of microscopic cells that make up my flesh.

Naturally, the water I swallow first goes into my stomach.

There thirsty blood vessels absorb and carry it to every part of my body.

Scientists have tested my stomach and found it empty

ten minutes after I've drunk twenty gallons.

In an eight hour day I can carry a four hundred pound load

a hundred miles across a hot, dry desert

and not stop once for a drink or something to eat.

In fact, I've been known to go eight days without a drink,

but then I look a wreck.

I lose 227 pounds, my ribs show through my skin,

and I look terribly skinny.

But I feel great! 

I look thin because the billions of cells lose their water.

They're no longer fat. They're flat.

Normally my blood contains 94 percent water, just like yours.

But when I can't find any water to drink,

the heat of the sun gradually robs a little water out of my blood.

Scientists have found that my blood can lose up to

40 percent of its water, and I'm still healthy.

Doctors say human blood has to stay very close to 94 percent water. If you lose 5 percent of it, you can't see anymore; 10 percent, you can't hear and you go insane; 12 percent, your blood is as thick as molasses and your heart can't pump thick stuff. It stops, and you're dead.

But that's not true with me.

Why?

Scientists say my blood is different.

My red cells are elongated. Yours are round.

Maybe that's what makes the difference.

This proves I'm designed for the desert,

or the desert is designed for me.

Did you ever hear of a design without a Designer?

After I find a water hole,

I'll drink for about ten minutes

and my skinny body starts to change almost immediately.

In that short time my body fills out nicely, I don't look skinny anymore,

and I gain back the 227 pounds I lost.

Even though I lose a lot of water on the desert,

my body conserves it too.

Way in the beginning when my intelligent Engineer made me,

He gave me a specially designed nose that saves water.

When I exhale, I don't lose much.

My nose traps that warm, moist air from my lungs 

and absorbs it in my nasal membranes.

Tiny blood vessels in those membranes take that back into my blood.

How's that for a recycling system? Pretty cool, isn't it.

It works because my nose is cool.

My cool nose changes that warm moisture in the air

from my lungs into water.

But how does my nose get cool?

I breath in hot dry desert air,

and it goes through my wet nasal passages.

This produces a cooling effect, and my nose stays as much as

18 degrees cooler than the rest of my body.

I love to travel the beautiful san dunes.

It's really quite easy, because

my Creator gave me specially engineered sand shoes for feet.

My hooves are wide, and they get even wider when I step on them.

Each foot has two long bony toes with tough, leathery skin

between my soles are a little like webbed feet.

They won't let me sink into the soft, drifting sand.

This is good, because often my master wants me to carry him 

one hundred miles across the desert in just one day.

(I troop about ten miles per hour.)

Sometimes a big windstorm comes out of nowhere,

bringing flying sand with it.

My Master Designer put special muscles in my nostrils

that close the openings, keeping sand out of my nose

but still allowing me enough air to breathe.

My eyelashes arch down over my eyes like screens,

Keeping the sand and sun out but still letting me see clearly.

If a grain of sand slips through and gets in my eye,

the Creator took care of that too.

He gave me an inner eyelid that automatically

wipes the sand off my eyeball just like a windshield wiper.

Some people think I'm conceited because I always walk around

with my head held high and my nose in the air.

But that's just because of the way I'm made.

My eyebrows are so thick and bushy

I have to hold my head high to peek out from underneath them.

I'm glad I have them though.

They shade my eyes from the bright sun.

Desert people depend on me for many things.

Not only am I their best form of transportation,

but I'm also their grocery store.

Mrs. Camel gives very rich milk

that people make into butter and cheese.

I shed my thick fur coat once a year,

and that can be woven into cloth.

A few young camels are used for beef,

but I don't like to talk about that.

For a long time we camels have been  called

the "ships of the desert" because of the way

we sway from side to side when we trot.

Some of our riders get seasick.

I sway from side to side because of the way my legs work.

Both legs on one side move forward at the same time,

elevating that side.

My "left, right left, right" motion makes my rider feel like

he is in a rocking chair going sideways.

When I was six months old,

special knee pads started to grow on my front legs.

The intelligent Creator knew I had to have them.

They help me lower my 1000 pounds to the ground.

If I didn't have them,

my knees would soon become sore and infected,

and I could never lie down.

I'd die of exhaustion.

By the way,

I don't get thick knee pads because I fall on my knees.

I fall on my knees because I already have these tough pads.

Someone very great thought of me and knew I needed them.

He designed them into my genes.

It's real difficult for me to understand

how some people say I evolved into what I now am.

I'm very technical, highly engineered dromedary camel.

Things like me don't just happen.

They're planned on a drawing board

by Someone very brilliant,

Someone very logical.

John 1:1 says,

"In the beginning was the Word.

And the Word was with God

and the Word was God."

The Word means "logical, intelligent one."

Verse 3 says,

"All things were made by him and without him

was not anything made that was made."

Who was the Word?

Look at verse 14.

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,

and we beheld His glory."

Who was made flesh?

The Lord Jesus Christ,

the Word who created everything,

including the dromedary camel.

by Bob Devine Reprinted by permission from Moody/September 1981

Mr. Devine is the creator and narrator of

"The Storybook Room"

on Moody radio and the author of eight children's books on nature

(Moody Press).

__________________

I wish I had known all these interesting things about camels when I rode this one in Egypt back in 1978. It was quite an experience and I think I would have appreciated it even more if I had known more about the amazing animal I was riding. Here is a photo of me taken that day.

A BLOGGING AWARD FROM A NON-HUMAN?

Yes, I got my first award from one of God's creatures who is not a human. It's a prolific blogger award. Thank you Sitka. I appreciate you and Andrea both.

Don't know Sitka? Neither did I until a little while ago. Here is the bloggin' doggie. Why not check out Sitka's blog. You will enjoy it.

  

You can visit Sitka's blog by clicking right HERE.

There were rules that went with it, but I'm going to do like Sitka did and ignore the rules. So, if you are a prolific blogger and are a bloggin' friend of mine, please grab the award. I want you to have it.

TWO WOLVES

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

"One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

"The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

(I have heard this before and I like it.)

Another Horse

Yes, I sold the horse I won and bought a camera, but there would be another horse in my life.

This horse was a palomino that I named Pam. When I graduated from high school, we immediately moved to Colorado. My Dad had gone ahead and rented a house and bought me a horse. I really didn’t know anything about horses, but I thought it would be nice to have one and to learn to ride, which I never did. I think my Dad wanted the horse more than I did. I really wasn’t a horse person as you can probably tell by this picture. I’m not getting too close to it. We moved back to California in less than a year and my horse days were over. The horse stayed in Colorado.

From a Horse to a Camera

When I was in high school back in Oklahoma, there was a roller skating rink way out in the country called Lost Bridge. I went round and round at that skating rink probably thousands of times to the sounds of Hank Williams, Hank Thompson, Hank Snow and other country artists. (The Hanks come to mind.) We use to go there almost every night. I doubt seriously if it is there now. It has been over 50 years. There are probably houses, apartments or businesses where it stood.

Anyway, that was where I won a horse. No, it wasn’t for my skating ability, but because I had the winning ticket. I kept the horse for a few months and ended up selling it to the little brother of one of my uncles that lived about 85 miles from us. I sold the horse for $50.00. I used about half of it to purchase the Brownie Hawkeye camera. I don’t remember what I did with the rest of the money, but that camera was a good investment. $50.00 doesn’t seem like much for a horse, but this was way back in 1953.

Here is a picture of me and my little cousin Linda on the horse. By the way, the horse's name was Baby.

I just realized today marks one month of blogging. I posted my first one on January 12. What fun I've had and how great it has been to meet so many fellow bloggers.

The Dancing Bear

When traveling on the roads in India, you never know what you might run across. (A friend who had been there commented that traveling on the roads in India is like a near death experience.) I think that is a good description. On our journey from New Delhi to the Taj Mahal we saw this dancing bear and his handler by the side of the road. Of course we stopped. After taking this picture and observing the bear for awhile, I started to get into the back seat of the car. I didn’t know the bear was going to follow me in. This may be the most scared I’ve ever been. The handler backed him out when Sharon gave him some more rupies. I never was so relieved. I even started breathing again.